Sitting Councillor for Ward 14 Somerset since 2022, running for a second term.
Ariel Troster is the sitting Councillor for Ward 14 Somerset, according to the City’s list of elected officials, and is on the City’s list of certified candidates for the same ward, with a nomination dated May 7, 2026. The City’s results give her 8,663 of the 14,137 votes cast in Ward 14 in 2022, which is 61.3 percent, in a race of 3 candidates. The Council minutes record her voting against the 2026 police budget and the adoption of the 2026 budgets, and CBC News reports that she moved the motion that led to the Rental Renovation Licence By-law, which Council passed on July 15, 2026. Her campaign says its priorities are housing and homelessness, community safety, safer streets, community life and the arts, transparency at City Hall, and trees and greenspace.
Researched by voche.me · Not a campaign-authored page
The City of Ottawa’s list of elected officials for 2022 to 2026 shows Ariel Troster as Councillor for Ward 14 Somerset. The City’s list of certified candidates shows her nomination for the same ward dated May 7, 2026, with the same date for her registration in the Contribution Rebate Program. The City’s published results for the October 24, 2022 election give her 8,663 of the 14,137 votes cast in Ward 14, which is 61.3 percent, the most votes in a race of 3 candidates. The City’s page for her, in a copy saved on August 11, 2025, titles her Councillor and Deputy Mayor, says she is the Council Liaison for Women, Gender Equity and 2SLGBTQ+ Affairs, and says she is a member of the Planning and Housing, Community Services, Built Heritage and Transportation committees. It also says that before she ran for office she worked with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and holds a BA in journalism and history, a graduate diploma in Community Economic Development and an MA in Feminist and Gender Studies. voche.me did not check those degrees with the schools.
The Council minutes of four meetings record her votes by name. On December 10, 2025 she voted against the 2026 Ottawa Police Service budget (carried 20 to 5, with Councillors King, Menard, Johnson and Bradley also against), for a motion by Councillor King that would have matched a $5.4 million police reserve allocation with $5.4 million for ANCHOR (a program that sends non-police crisis teams) and community hubs (lost 9 to 16), and against the motion that adopted the 2026 budgets (carried 21 to 4, with Councillors Luloff, Leiper and Devine also against). On April 22, 2026 she voted against the Safe Access to Social Infrastructure By-law (carried 20 to 4, with Councillors Menard, Devine and Bradley also against) and for an amendment that would have removed the by-law’s ban on demonstrations inside safe access zones (lost 6 to 18). On July 15, 2026 she voted for the Rental Renovation Licence By-law review (carried 20 to 5). On September 9, 2026 she voted for a motion by Councillor King that asks the federal government to extend its consultation on the Eastern Bridge Project (carried 23 to 2).
CBC News reported that on June 3, 2026 the planning and housing committee passed a motion by Troster that asked City staff to bring forward a bylaw against renovictions, which is when a landlord evicts a tenant to renovate a unit and then rents it at a higher price. CBC News describes her as the councillor who has pushed hardest for that bylaw since 2024. The CBC News update says Council voted for the bylaw on July 15, 2026 and that it comes into force on January 1, 2027. Capital Current quotes her calling it a first step that protects renters while letting responsible landlords finish real renovations. On April 7, 2026 CBC News reported that she moved a motion that passed at the finance and corporate services committee, asking staff for a downtown public washroom plan.
Her campaign website says she has been Councillor since 2022 and that she worked in the non-profit and labour sectors as a communications, policy and campaign strategist. It lists a plan with six parts: housing and homelessness, community safety, safer streets, community life and the arts, transparency at City Hall, and trees and greenspace. In it she promises a housing acquisition fund to save affordable rentals, a rent bank, more supportive housing, a wider ANCHOR program across the city, a vacant commercial property tax, more protected bike lanes, a permanent Street Seats pop-up patio program, and a refusal of campaign donations from developers. In the CBC News questionnaire she names transit reliability and ending chronic homelessness as the main tasks, supports a transit levy and an infrastructure levy, and says the police budget is appropriate while she wants more crime prevention, foot patrols and community supports. In the CTV News Ottawa questionnaire she says she would not support a police budget increase without a clear audit and equal funding for social services. She says she has consistently voted against fare increases and against the Mayor’s budget direction. She lists as results of her term the renoviction bylaw, ANCHOR in Centretown, the Gladstone and Gilmour bikeway and the Street Seats program. In The BUZZ questions of August 2026 she says she has joined the NDP at various points to vote for its leader and has never been a particularly active member, and that she did not accept donations from the development sector in 2022 and will not now. These are her own statements, and voche.me checked only the votes described above. The sources read hold no complaint against her.
Summarized from the campaign’s published profile. These are stated positions, not an assessment of results or a complete platform.
Her campaign plan proposes a housing acquisition fund to save affordable rentals, stronger bylaw enforcement against landlords who let properties fall into disrepair, a rent bank to prevent homelessness, and more high-needs supportive housing.
In the CTV News Ottawa questionnaire she says she would push for a focused strategy to move the people in the worst condition off the streets.
Her plan says she would keep the CORE policing program accountable and attentive to hot spots, scale up the ANCHOR program and community outreach city-wide, invest in youth outreach and conflict resolution, improve lighting, and fight for a vacant commercial property tax.
On the police budget she tells CBC News it is appropriate and she wants more crime prevention and community foot patrols.
She told The BUZZ she would not seek a seat on the Ottawa Police Service Board, so that she can hold the service to account as a member of Council.
Her plan asks for priority snow clearing, faster sidewalk repairs, faster building of protected bike lanes, more protected intersections and a city-wide bike share program.
In the CBC News questionnaire she names frequent and reliable public transit as the biggest challenge for the next term and says she would reverse the New Ways to Bus changes and favour a transit levy.
She wants the Street Seats program made permanent and expanded to all downtown neighbourhoods, more funding for festivals, public art and community cultural programs, a leasing program for vacant spaces, and faster permits for businesses and events.
Ariel Troster campaign · PlanHer plan says she would involve neighbours and community groups in the budget, refuse campaign donations from developers as she says she did in 2022, and push the City to tell residents about major files early.
In the NCR Now questions she says she has voted against the Mayor’s budget direction because a tax rate should not be set before the City assesses its needs.
She says she would expand free City tree planting, fund more street trees in the heat zones of Centretown, Chinatown and Little Italy, involve residents in the renewal of McNabb, Dundonald and Plouffe parks, and support a planter box program.
She tells CBC News that Somerset has the lowest tree coverage of the National Capital Region.
Evidence reviewed on October 6, 2026: the City’s list of certified candidates for Ward 14, its open data file of nominations, its list of elected officials and its 2022 results, the City’s page for her (an Internet Archive copy of August 11, 2025), her campaign website (home, Meet Ariel, Plan, News and Events), her Bluesky account, CBC News of April 7, June 3, July 8 and August 25, 2026, CTV News Ottawa of September 11, 2026, Capital Current of July 2026, NCR Now of September 2, 2026, the Centretown BUZZ of August 19 and September 2026, and four sets of Council minutes (December 10, 2025, April 22, July 15 and September 9, 2026).
Gaps. Her Facebook page showed nothing to a visitor who is not logged in. Committee minutes were not searched, and her committee roles and the Deputy Mayor title rest on the City’s page copied on August 11, 2025. Her statements about her first term, her degrees, her work before 2022 and her board roles were not checked with the bodies named. Her votes on 2026 matters other than the four meetings above were not searched. The voche.me questionnaire has not been sent.
The City’s list of elected officials 2022 to 2026 shows her as the Ward 14 Councillor, and the City’s 2022 results give her 8,663 of 14,137 votes. The City’s page for her, copied on August 11, 2025, titles her Councillor and Deputy Mayor.
City of Ottawa open data · Elected Officials 2022-2026 (Ward 14 row)The City’s page for her, copied on August 11, 2025, lists membership of the Planning and Housing, Community Services, Built Heritage and Transportation committees and the role of Council Liaison for Women, Gender Equity and 2SLGBTQ+ Affairs. voche.me has not checked these against committee minutes.
City of Ottawa · Councillor page for Ariel Troster (Internet Archive copy of August 11, 2025)The City’s page for her says she worked with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities before running for office, and she says in the CBC News questionnaire that this was five years of communications and advocacy work. voche.me has not checked this with the Federation.
City of Ottawa · Councillor page for Ariel Troster (Internet Archive copy of August 11, 2025)In the CBC News questionnaire and on her campaign website she says she sat on the boards of Egale Canada and the Ten Oaks Project and helped sponsor refugees and asylum seekers with Rainbow Haven. voche.me has not checked this with those organizations.
CBC News · Candidate questionnaire: Ariel Troster, Ward 14 SomersetProposed questions for a future interview. They have not been sent to the candidate, and no answers have been supplied.
No questions and answers have been supplied.
Ask Ariel Troster directly. We send it to the campaign, and publish the reply here if we get one.
Facts voche.me can state about Ariel Troster's page itself, answered directly rather than left blank.
No. This page is researched by voche.me from public sources, listed below, and is separate from Ariel Troster's own campaign.
Not according to this profile. voche.me has not listed a current public office for Ariel Troster.
This profile lists 24 sourced references, each with the date voche.me checked it, in the Sources section below.
The "Questions & answers" section on this page lists questions voche.me would put to Ariel Troster in a future interview. They have not been sent yet, so the page says plainly that no answer has been supplied instead of leaving the section blank.
The 2026 Ottawa municipal election, including the Councillor race, is decided on October 26, 2026.
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